SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Concordia-St. Paul men's basketball team (1-6, 0-4 NSIC) led for much of the evening before falling down the stretch 77-68 at the University of Sioux Falls (5-3, 1-3 NSIC) on Friday night at Stewart Center. All six of Concordia's losses are by single-digit margins in the 2012-13 season.

Sioux Falls used a strong 17-5 run in the second half to turn a 53-51 Concordia lead into a 68-58 USF lead with just under three minutes to play. Concordia was unable to recover in the final minutes as the Cougar lead stayed at seven or greater the rest of the way.

The Golden Bears looked poised for their first Northern Sun win when they reached the bonus early in the second half (14:07), but the whistle went both ways as USF was not far behind to reach the bonus. And USF would end up shooting two more free throws in the second half, 19-to-17, with each team converting an efficient 15. For the game, Concordia ended up 19-of-22 at the line for 86.4%.

While Concordia held a shooting advantage for a good portion of the evening by a sizeable amount, it was a season-high 20 turnovers that proved costly as USF capitalized with a 19-8 advantage in points off turnovers. USF only committed nine turnovers while Concordia's 20 was five higher than its previous season-high.

Perhaps the most costly factor of the evening, though, was the foul trouble that forced the league's third leading scorer, Terez VanPelt (Osseo, Minn.) to play just 24 minutes. VanPelt had been averaging 20.0 points and over 36 minutes per game. He finished with 13 points in his 24 minutes of play, and his absence contributed to the higher team turnover rate.

Concordia held the lead or the upper-hand for much of the night, leading by as many as six points on multiple occasions. But its last lead was at around the midway point of the second half. The second half featured two ties and nine lead changes before USF went ahead for good for the last nine and a half minutes.

Overall, there were 15 lead changes and six ties.

Concordia was led by sophomore Cole Olstad (Elgin, Minn.) 16 points and six rebounds while Isaiah Thomas (Fridley, Minn.) matched VanPelt's 13 points.

In the first half, it was redshirt-freshman Mike Yahnke (Delano, Minn.) and junior Cordell Smith (Mequon, Wis.) leading the way with eight points each. But they combined for just one point the rest of the way, a Smith free throw in the second half.

David Maxwell led USF with 19 points while AJ Holland added 17 including four three-pointers.

Concordia looks to bounce back tomorrow evening at Southwest Minnesota State, where it is 2-12 all-time. The Mustangs are 5-6 overall and 3-2 in Northern Sun play after tonight's narrow loss to Minnesota State.